Joking Around!
by Little Starlette
Summary: Two young teenagers, Tess and Arya, find themselves caught in a world full of deceit and lies, a world full of very dangerous people. But what happens when you throw romance and murder in the mix. Will the girls stay best friends and with the ones they love? Or will it all fall apart, and they won't be able to just joke around? Batman/Young Justice, co-writing with SheWolfSwift !
1. Two Blondes and Lots of Strange Looks

Hiya guys! It's me again! Except I'm not alone I'm with my Friend …. ! ;) This is a story that I and she have been wanting to write for a while and we hope you enjoy!

Arya – 15

Tessa – 16

Riccardo – 2

Ben - 11

How We Met

Arya's POV

Okay, so I might not be the smartest person in the world but I know that getting a random scholarship to Gotham Academy is strange, especially when I didn't apply! I'm blonde, but not that blonde.

"Do it sweetie, take the chance I never got" mother said. Yea right like I am going to listen to her.

I can't just leave, what would happen to Ricardo? What would happen to me? If I leave I might just have to compromise my identity, and that can't happen, not in a million years.

I have been pondering the questions for three days now, is I leave who is going to look after Ricca, defiantly not mum, she would probably leave him all alone in our flat while she goes out to slut it up somewhere, yep, I'm going to say it, my mum is a slut. She comes home pretty much every night drunk off her head and she smells like … you don't want to know what.

Maybe I should take that scholarship.

….::::2 Days Later::::…..

I am currently walking up the massive stairs to the front entrance of Gotham Academy. I found out just this morning that some sappy billionaire, by the name of Bruce Wayne, decided he would hand out twenty scholarships to kids in_ 'need', _do I look like I'm in need? Well, maybe, but just because I refuse to go to school does not mean I'm _in need. _Whatever. I walk onto the grounds and immediately everything stopped, or should I say everyone stopped and stared at me. I feel my face burn up, feeling like a tomato. I realise that they aren't staring at me; they are starring at something behind me, except this one boy who has kept his eyes on me the whole time.

Anyway, I turn around and there climbing out of my suitcase, yes_, climbing out,_ is my brother, Ricca. Yes my little brother stow away in my luggage, how cliché.

"Ricca!" I cry, appalled at the sight before me. I run towards him, feeling embarrassed as ever, and pick him up.

As I cradle him in my arms I whisper in his ear. "What are you doing here?"

"I didn't want to lose my Arya, so I came with you" he responded. A two year olds logic is so simple and yet so sweet.

All of a sudden I hear a feminine voice to my left speak, "Awe, what a cutie".

I turn my head in the direction of the voice and see a girl about my age, maybe a year older, standing there. She had dirty blonde hair, which cascaded down, to the small of her back and piercing blue eyes with flecks of grey, like a storm brewing, she was absolutely beautiful.

"Uh, thanks? He's my brother" I respond, rather stunned that anyone would approach me after what has just occurred. She smiles widely at me and I see just a little sparkle in her eyes.

"I'm Tessa, welcome to the Academy" she says calmly.

"Wow, thanks, and I'm Arya" I say.

"My Arry!" Ricca cries. I look down desperately at him; I don't want to be embarrassed especially here and with a new potential friend.

"Hmm, never been to boarding school?" Tessa questioned.

"How did you know?" I say shocked. Is it really that obvious I think to myself?

"Mmm, I can just tell" she says looking from me to Ricca, and then she winks at me.

"I like you" I say cheerfully, my perkiness coming back. It usually disappears when I'm nervous.

"I like you too" Tessa responded.

Tessa grabs my hand and leads me to the girls dorms, all the while Ricca has climbed over me and onto my back and drifted off to sleep. I really think I am going to like it here.

….::::Tessa's POV::::….

If you could marry sleep, I would have done it ages ago, probably when I first started my night 'job'. I know that I really shouldn't stay up so late, but I can't help it, I need the money. Not for myself, but for Ben. He's so brave, I mean, not many 11 year old kids would have the patience that he does. If only he could talk. That's been my life's dream now, to make my brother talk. But I have had to change it slightly. See, when my brother hadn't been born yet, my monster of a mother, would dose herself up on drugs. Not the pill kind, but the needle type, and being the weird and mean person she was, would stick them straight into her pregnant stomach. We think that one day, she jabbed one in, and instead of pulling it out, she wiggled it around. Well my brother has had damaged vocal cords ever since, and I am determined to save up enough money to pay for surgery so that he can speak.

I roll over on to my side, and propped myself on one elbow. Then I hear a buzzing noise.

"Alright Ben, give me a minute, I need to get up". I pull myself up and fall back down again, groaning. Bloody henchmen, whenever they get a punch in, they make it count. Not that I get hit very often, actually, I have only been hit twice, both times they just got lucky. If there weren't so many of them, I would actually get away unscathed.

I slowly pull myself out of bed and chuck on my school uniform. I had managed to get Ben and myself a place at Gotham Academy. I wouldn't risk schooling and looking after Ben by me, not after my father was killed and my mother was sent to Arkham Asylum,

"Alright Ben, I'm ready, what did you want for breakfast?" I yell as I'm walking down to our run down kitchen. Ben runs down the stairs and almost crashes into me as he tries to stop.

"I would like egg on toast please" he signs.

"Oh, eggs on toast. Are you preparing for a good day then, I mean, you only have eggs on toast if you're gonna have a good day" I reply, cooking the eggs. Then it hits me, it's Newbie Day, or also known as the day when the new kids come in.

"Wait a minute, are you hinting in a way that it's newbie day?" I question. Because bens mute he doesn't really have any friends.

"Yes" he signs quickly before finishing his breakfast. He rushes upstairs and comes back down, with his bag on his back and waits at the front door. I sprint upstairs and grab my bag before I slide down the railing of the staircase and race Ben out the door, stopping only for a few seconds to lock the door.

…Later that day…...

At lunch time I walk out into the main courtyard at school and look around. A big bus pulls up out the front of the school and the door to it slides open. Here come the newbies. My eye lands on a girl with a black and red suit case, which was almost bursting as the zipper. She had blonde hair and was looking around nervously, and that's when her suitcase began to open and out came a boy, probably no older than two years old, smiling. This little kid was absolutely adorable and I couldn't help myself, I just had to meet this mysterious girl.

"I'm Tessa, welcome to the Academy" I say calmly. She looks around again, and then her eyes settle on me.

"Wow, thanks, and I'm Arya" She say.

"My Arry!" A small voice cries. I look down to see the cute little boy that climbed out of her suitcase. I could see the desperate look in her eyes, the same ones when I first came to Gotham Academy. I then realised that she has probably never been to boarding school before.

"Hmm, never been to boarding school?" I questioned. I then proceeded to give her little brother a warm smile.

"How did you know?" she says shocked.

"Mmm, I can just tell" I say looking from her to her little brother.

"I like you" she says cheerfully, a sense of perkiness starting to show in her voice.

"I like you too" I respond.

I then grab her and drag her to the girl's dormitories, not that I'm staying there, just to show her around. I feel that I can already relate to her. Her little brother has curled up on her back and went to sleep. I smile and continue on to the dorms, I think that we're going to be best of friends.

Luv your ever faithful writers!

Twala! Xo


	2. Finally, Another Girl

….::::Tessa's POV::::….

It was a one of those classic Gotham winter nights; a sheet of pure white covered the cityscape, the soft sound of the late night traffic and the occasional blare of a police siren. All in all, it was a calm night when I heard a soft knocking noise on the other side of my bedroom door. I slowly lifted myself up out of bed, out of my train of thought and made my way to my door. On the other side of the door, was my brother, trying so very hard not to yawn.

"Ben, what's wrong"? I spoke softly. He looked around nervously, down at his feet, then his eyes returned to mine.

"Did you need any help tonight" He questions me quickly. I shake my head slowly. Realising then that I wasn't going to let up, he sighed.

"I had another nightmare" he signed. I smiled down at him gently, took his hand like I used to when we were younger and led him back into his room. I gestured for him to get into bed and pulled his blankets up to his neck and tucked him in. I grabbed his desk chair and pulled it over to his bed. I sat down and gently pushed his unruly dirty blonde hair from his eyes.

"There, nothing bad is going to happen, I promise" I whispered. I kissed his forehead and started to get up when I felt a tug on my sleeve. I turned to look at his dark blue eyes. His eyes pleaded for something, something that I haven't seen in a long time. He slowly sat up right and looked me in the eyes.

"Can you please sing to me Tessa?" He signed. He stared at me with his dark ocean blue eyes, pulling off his award winning puppy dog eyes yet again. I quietly sighed, leaned back in the chair and began to sing no louder than a whisper.

"_I see the moon, the moon sees me  
shining through the leaves of the old oak tree  
Oh, let the light that shines on me  
shine on the one I love._

Over the mountain, over the sea,  
back where my heart is longing to be  
Oh, let the light that shines on me  
shine on the one I love.

I hear the lark, the lark hears me  
singing from the leaves of the old oak tree  
Oh, let the lark that sings to me  
sing to the one I love,

Over the mountains, over the sea  
back where my heart is longing to be  
Oh, let the lark that sings to me  
sing to the one I love."

As I came to the ending of the lullaby, I noticed that Ben's eyes were closed and the doona cover was slowly rising and falling with the slow intakes of air, hinting that he had fallen asleep. I smiled down at him, remembering what our family was like before mom went on her rampage, just after she got counselling. We were a happy family, until dad was killed, and mom lost it. She was taken to a mental asylum shortly after being convicted 'mentally insane'. That was the last that we had heard from her until two years later when we were contacted by the director of the institute, who informed us of her passing. All she left was an envelope, nothing else, saying that we were to open it on Ben's thirteenth birthday. It's like she half knew that if she wrote a similar thing for my birthday on the envelope, I wouldn't open it. Maybe she was starting to go sane after all, who knows…

I lifted myself out of the old wooden desk chair, walked to my room and shut the door. I looked at the clock and smiled, Night Job time and I loved every second of it.

_~20 minutes later~_

Okay, so maybe not every second of the job, but good comes with the bad. Right? I kept telling myself that as I dodged yet another punch to the face by some unknown shady henchmen. I had to admit, this guy may have had some training, not like the usual guys who are just hired because they look big and intimidating. I ducked to avoid another punch and spun on my left foot, with my right leg tripping the man, causing him to fall on his back. I readied my fist for a final knock-out punch when I felt a sharp pain in the back of my head. _Someone pulled my hair! _I thought.I couldn't believe it, so I sharply turned and punched the culprit in the face. He fell to the ground with a satisfying thud, and I turned my attention to the guy that was on the ground, but was gone from sight. I sighed in frustration, _how could I have let him get away! How did I not realise that he had friends as well, I really am off my game. _I slowly made my way past the unconscious henchmen and inside the boatyard warehouse. I was quite annoyed at myself at the fact that I completely missed the henchmen outside. I made my way to a shadowed area behind massive wooden crates and looked towards two more henchmen.

"Mikey" one henchmen addressed the other. "Boss said to switch, I'm here to relieve you, He said to go in and collect your payment".

"Alright then, see ya soon alright" 'Mikey' said.

I giggled to myself. Either these guys don't know how to be quiet, or this is obviously a trap for people like me. Oh well, only one way to find out!

_**҉ Arya's POV ҉**_

Life is great! Don't you agree? I mean maybe you have never felt like this before. You know that feeling you get, when you have something special, like a piece of jewellery or a clothing item. Well that's how I feel when I put on the suit, not just any suit, the suit. The red and black outfit that none other than the Harley Quinn wore. Well it's not exactly the same as hers; I've made a few adjustments. Like it's not a full body suit any more, it is a lose skirt that sits on my hips and stops mid-thigh with a white belt around its top, the top is divided into two down the middle, one side red the other black just like my skirt except the colours are switched around. Anyway the top is strapless and has the Harley three diamond symbol on my left breast in red. The sleeves are long gloves that stop under my armpits where a trim of whit is situated, but the gloves doesn't cover my fingers just go into a point at my middle finger where a loop is situated so the gloves don't fall off. My boots are all black and go to my knee, they are high heels and the actual heel bits are red, at the tips of my boots are little trims of white. Around my neck I wear a white chocker, and my hair is in two high pigtails with one black ribbon in one, and a red one in the other and too top off the outfit I have a simple black mask, no white makeup on or anything, just a mask. This new and improved outfit is to fit in with the new and improved Haley Quinn, me, the new Jokers side kick, and just for kicks I even changed my name a bit too Harlequin.

Anyway, so I am so in the moment right now, admiring myself in the oversized mirror situated in the middle of the warehouse. I look amazing, I smile, I then start to spin around the room and start laughing in the process.

"Harlie, what the hell do you think you are doing?!" I hear from behind me. Uh oh, I think this is going to be bad.

"Umm, twirling around?" I reply, but my voice is really high pitched due to the fact that I am so scared at the moment.

"Ugh, what have I told about staying focused!" the Joker said a bit more softly.

You see, this Joker is not the original Joker. No, he died awhile back. But this guy was implanted with some kind of chip to make him think and feel like the original Joker. But when the chip was removed, he had already gone insane and now he believes he is the Joker, only new and improved. He is one of my best friends, and as a bonus he doesn't hurt me like the original Joker did to the original Harley Quinn.

"Sorry, puddin'!" I say, well I still like to keep up appearances don't I.

I start giggling again as I continue spinning.

"Tick tock, tick tock, when is my little spy coming to the party?" Joker says, just as he spoke a big muscly man walks through the big steel door. I pause from what I am doing and run up next to the Joker. Joker makes a weird face, as he tries to remember who this person is.

"He is one of the guys you're hiring to guard the place, remember?" I whisper into his ear, the whole time my eyes are still on this guy. "Mikey, I think his name is".

"Oh, yes you, you're the one from outside aren't you? Yes I remember, what are you doing in here anyway?"

'Mikey' all of a sudden turns rather pale at the sight of the Joker, I don't think he thought he would meet the most crazy villain in all of Gotham.

"Errmm, well, I was wondering whether… you know…. I'm gonna get paid for this right?" Stuttered 'Mikey'.

_Uh oh, this guy is gonna be in for it now_, I think with a slight smirk on my face.

…:::Tessa's POV:::…

I quietly snuck around until I heard a noise coming from over the other side of the wall of wooden crates. I made my way up the side of the wooden wall and listened closely with my head peeking out from the shadows.

"Tick tock, tick tock, when is my little spy coming to the party, Oh, yes you, you're the one from outside aren't you? Yes I remember, what are you doing in here anyway?" The Joker asked impatiently. _So that's who I'll be working for, explains the whole note on the back of a playing card I found earlier._

"Errmm, well, I was wondering whether… you know…. I'm gonna get paid for this right?" Stuttered 'Mikey'. _So the Joker is the so called Boss, It's all making sense now._ The Joker slowly walked up to 'Mikey' and grabbed the collar of his shirt. He looked him up and down and, without a care in the world, tossed him aside.

"Harlie!" He yelled. "I want you to keep lookout for the new kid, I'm going to be in my office dealing with big people stuff, Bring the kid in when they turn up" and with that, he stalked off out of the room. I slowly made my way down the front of the wooden crates and into the moon light of the warehouse. I cautiously stepped over 'Mikey' who by the looks of it, was knocked out cold from when the Joker had threw him, when I saw a girl step out from the shadows. She had her hair in two blonde bouncy pigtails, she wore a skirt which was red on one side, and black on the other, her shirt was a mid-drift with long sleeves. The shirt was half black and red too but the colours were on the opposite side to the skirt. She wore a black mask, with two ribbons in her hair, and a white chocker around her neck. And finally her high heeled boots went to her knees and each boot was blackwith the tips trimmed white. _So that's the new Harlequin, Interesting. _She looked at me straight in the eyes then looked down to my feet then back up to my eyes again. She smirked at me and I swear that I saw a familiar mischievous glint in her eyes.

"Yay, a girl" She cried. "I swear if you were a boy I would have freaked!" I smiled and gave her an agreeing wink.

**҉ Arya's POV ҉**

A girl, another girl! Is all I can think about, bouncing up and down where I am standing. As soon as I had seen her I was ecstatic, after our little exchange I had grabbed her hand and dragged her to the back of the warehouse where a little office is situated. I burst in with her, not knocking, the Joker had nearly fallen out of his chair and I swear he was going to yell at me till he laid eyes on the new girl.

"Ah, I see our company has arrived" Joker said mischievously.

I turned to the girl and saw she had a worried look on her face.

I told her this, "Don't worry, he's not gonna hurt ya, I'm Harlequin by the way"

The girl turned to me and smiled thankfully for my attempt at reassuring her.

"I'm Shewolf" she signed with her hands.

Oh my god, she signs, this is gonna be brilliant we are going to be the best of friends. You see I learnt how to sign because my Aunt was a mute, she was my favourite Aunt and she passed away before I could try communicating with her. So you can believe my enthusiasm.

She just nodded and her grin just got bigger.

"Well I see you too ladies are getting along, good because you two have to do something very important for me" says the sinister voice that is all too familiar to me.


End file.
